Save Article

Dina Nayeri on Keeping Up with Her Peace Corps Mom

The novelist travels to rural Thailand and wonders how she wound up so much weaker than the woman who raised her

By

Dina Nayeri

Aug. 29, 2014 10:36 a.m. ET

TWO SUMMERS AGO, I saw a video of my 56-year-old mother zip-lining through a forest in Laos with a group of much younger fellow Peace Corps volunteers. In the video, she seems unaware that she's doing anything unusual; she calmly asks the instructor if she should clip the carabiner here, if she should tighten it like that. Then she zips out of the shot.

A political refugee and exile by 32, my mother packs a lot of living into her days. Even for a Persian, she's a fiery soul. She's been a doctor, a volunteer health-care...